REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPEN DAY OF TALLAGHT WEST CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPEN DAY OF TALLAGHT WEST CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE TALLAGHT STADIUM
Dia dhíbh a chairde, I’m delighted to join you here in the wonderful Tallaght Stadium to celebrate Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative. This place which is the home of Shamrock Rovers and has welcomed prestige visitors such as Juventas and Real Madrid, is changing tack this evening to host the premier league of community and child-focused initiatives. I’d like to thank Noelle Spring, Chairperson and Marian Quinn, CEO of Tallaght West CDI for inviting me to conclude what I hope has been a really great open day.
My grandmother used to say over and over to her 60 grandchildren that what is learnt in childhood is engraved on stone. It’s true and it is terrifying, for if you engrave badly on a stone, you can throw it away and pick up another one. With our children however, we get one go around. If we engrave well, like the best diamond engravers we can help the child and the adult to shine in remarkable and beautiful ways. If we engrave badly then chances are we may take the lustre out of that life and we may even switch off permanently the inner light which gives a life its radiance, its purpose and its assurance. So we want to engrave well for the child is not simply a private individual whose life is lived in a bubble unconnected to the rest of humanity – the child is part of a family, a clan, a community, a country and he or she is the most important basic building block of this thing we call society. So every one of us has a vested interest in making sure that the people who engrave on the lives of children know what they are doing, are well prepared and have all the help, training and support they need to do a good job. What is a good job? We judge it by the outcome – a healthy child, a happy child, a child encouraged and helped to achieve his or her potential, a child who is a problem solver rather than a problem.
So how do we go about engraving well – the evidence tells us we start early, from conception when we take responsibility for the tiny foetus which is now utterly reliant on our good judgment about what we eat and drink. The child born with foetal alcohol syndrome is condemned unnecessarily and to a life of serious health problems which could be avoided with greater care. The mother who smokes, we now know, places her baby at risk of health problems. The poor direct line consequences of these intimate personal actions are important teaching tools, for along with a massive body of research into childhood, they tell us that childhood is a time for serious and focused care. It tells us that the earlier the good interventions in a child’s life, the better and the more support there is for parents and families, the stronger their coping skills and the resource base they can draw on, the more likely it is that a child will develop well and achieve its best potential. None of us as parents has all the answers – often we have to look to others for help or information or guidance and here you are lucky to have Tallaght West CDI.
The short video ‘The Story So Far’ gives a fascinating flavor of the complex and important work that goes on each day in this community to make children strong and to enrich family life. It’s a great story of confidence built up, of literacy problems tackled and overcome, of healthier bodies, healthier minds and healthier families; a story of empowerment, problem-solving and community-building. We’ve also heard directly from two parents who, together with their families, are living, breathing examples of the success of these programmes and whose stories are mirrored in other homes and other schools throughout this area.
Tallaght West CDI knows what it needs to do because it first asked the people what they wanted and needed, so your programmes are informed by the views of the local residents, children, parents, grandparents, educators, service providers, voluntary and community groups. All of these vital stakeholders have been part of the design team that shaped the
programmes, the teams and resources CDI has put in place. So the professional childcare workers, speech therapists, community development workers, Gardaí and schools are in active, integrated partnership with parents and the wider community and the mission of that partnership is to make this a better place to live by giving the children the best possible start in life. Two old Irish proverbs sum it up- “Tús maith leath na hoibre”-
“a good start is half the work” and “Mol an óige agus tiochfaidh sí” – encourage the young and they will flourish.
A lot of people engrave on our children’s lives. Sometimes they are aware that they are engravers: teachers, parents, relatives. Sometimes they are not so conscious and need to be alerted to the unique opportunity they have to really impact well on a child’s life. Thanks to the integrated work of Tallaght West CDI, the shared community approach to child rearing gives an intensity of focus and effort which has a deep reach and wider impact. Alongside that work, there is of course an evaluation strand which everyone is eagerly looking forward to, for if this is successful as it certainly seems to be, then what you are doing here will be in the text books of tomorrow and much more importantly will be the inspiration for other communities and a game-changer for many other children.
At the conclusion of the video we saw earlier, one parent said “I think my kids might do alright out of this area – it’s not going to let them down.” That is an important statement of confidence and one that I am glad we are here to see and hear. I hope it encourages everyone from the public representatives, to the parents, volunteers, residents, community groups, professionals and wider public to keep on committing with enthusiasm to the long-term investment that effective care for our children demands.
It has been said that childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons. We want that to be true for every child and it breaks our hearts when we hear of children whose childhoods were made into nightmares, for we know that not only do we not get those days back but the damage done in them can cast its shadow over every day thereafter. The Proclamation of 1916 pledges us to create a republic where every child is cherished equally. It is an interesting word – “cherish” – for a tough political document that was a rallying call to rebel against a colonial system that relegated so many people, so many children to second class citizenship. We are the custodians of that pledge in our time. Here in Tallaght West you take it seriously. Thank you and thank you to all who have supported you including Atlantic Philanthropies, the Office of the Minster for Children and Youth Affairs and all service providers. It was Yeats who said “tread softly for you tread on my dreams”. Here you engrave carefully for you engrave on childhoods and childhoods are and should be places of happy dreams.
Finally, to Tallaght West CDI and its highly professional and dedicated staff, thank you for enhancing this community and improving our understanding of the lives of children in Ireland. I hope that the learning from this initiative will assist policy makers and funders in designing and supporting programmes that have national application. I wish all concerned and this vibrant community every continued success.